Carl Maria von Weber
Concerto for clarinet and orchestra in F minor, op. 73 no.1

Heinrich Baermann
Quintet for clarinet and strings in E flat major op. 23

Carl Maria von Weber
Quintet for clarinet and strings in B flat major op. 34

TOTAL TIMING: 61'49 

Shirley Brill’s career was launched with a performance as a soloist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Zubin Mehta. She has since performed with various international orchestras, most recently as a soloist with the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester at the main hall of the Berliner Philharmonie. The Tagesspiegel journal wrote about this performance: “Shirley Brill showed so much eagerness to communicate! Spectacular how the 26 year old Israeli transforms the melody lines with her most decisive performance and longest breath in Weber’s 1st clarinet concert”.

Shirley is the winner of the Geneva International Competition in Switzerland (2007), the Markneukirchen International Competition in Germany (2006) as well as a special prize recipient at the International ARD Competition in Munich.
Shirley Brill has performed at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Germany, the Ljubljana Festival in Slovenia and the Davos Festival in Switzerland, and collaborated with such artists as Sabine Meyer, the Borromeo and the Jerusalem String Quartets, Trio di Clarone and soprano Chen Reiss. She regularly performs with pianist Jonathan Aner as a member of the Brillaner Duo, playing in such prestigious halls as the Carnegie Hall in New-York and the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn. The Duo won the Possehl Prize in Germany as well as the America-Israel Cultural Foundation grants, and has taken part in festivals in Germany, Australia, Turkey and Israel.

Recently they served on the faculty at the Yellow Barn Festival’s Young Artists Program (USA), at the Mahler Academy in Ferrara (Italy), and coached masterclasses in different academies in Australia (including at the Australian National Academy of Music), Canada and Israel.
Committed to the creation and performance of new music, Shirley has collaborated with several leading contemporary musicians including Diethelm Jonas and Zsolt Nagy. She has premiered numerous pieces of young composers and expanded the repertoire of the clarinet through her own transcriptions.

After studying in Israel with Mr. Yitzhak Katzap, she continued her studies at the Musikhochschule Lübeck in Germany and at the New England Conservatory in Boston, USA. Working with world-renowned mentors such as Sabine Meyer and Richard Stoltzman, “Shirley Brill is on a fast track to making an international name for herself” (Prenzlauer Zeitung, Germany). 

As a result of the noteworthy work of the musicians under the direction of German conductor Michael Hofstetter (2001-2007), the Geneva chamber Orchestra (Orchestre de Chambre de Genève) has developed into a first class orchestra, one which is unique in its set-up in the musical landscape of the Lake Geneva region.
Thanks to the initiative of Michael Hoffstetter, who took over the directorship of the Orchestra from Lev Markiz and Thierry Fischer, the Chamber Orchestra of Geneva (L’OCG) has developed a clear sound identity which is committed to historical interpretation. Anxious to cultivate a repertory from the late Baroque to the Romantic periods, the orchestra searches for the original sound of the performed works, among other things by using authentic instruments. The orchestra accords special esteem to undervalued or forgotten masters, which are placed alongside contemporary works.

The new charisma of the orchestra has been gradually displayed by work with first class conductors and soloists: Armin Jordan, Paul Goodwin, Arnold Östman, Alessandro de Marchi, Christopher Hogwood, Arie van Beek, Aldo Ciccolini, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Fazil Say, Nicholas Angelich, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Trio Wanderer, Matthias Goerne, Bo Skovhus, Max Emanuel Cencic, Nathalie Stutzmann, María Bayo and Nathalie Manfrino, not forgetting up-and-coming conductors like Juraj Valˇcuha and Patrick Lange.

Resident in Geneva, the L’OCG annually presents a season with six to seven subscription concerts in the “Bâtiment des Forces Motrices” which are frequently recorded by Radio Suisse Romande. In addition, it maintains close collaboration with the city of Geneva (Sunday concerts, summer serenades) and various choirs from Geneva and West Switzerland, participates in co-produc- tions with other ensembles (e.g. the Orchestre des Pays de Savoie), has engagements in the Grand Théâtre in Geneva (ballet and opera), is a partner of the “Concours de Genève” and makes concert tours throughout Switzerland and abroad.

The L’OCG is gaining more and more recognition abroad. A memorable tour of Germany in March 2006 yielded huge success and positive reviews everywhere, resulting in a renewed invitation to the Rheingau festival (Wiesbaden). A concert followed in June 2007 at America’s Cup in Valencia, and in August 2007 they made a tour of Spain with María Bayo where the concert in San Sebastián deserves special mention, having been directly broadcast from Radio Nacional de España to France-Musique and to the RSR-Espace 2. The orchestra is able to produce new CD recordings at regular intervals. Their most recent CD is devoted to Rossini arias under the direction of Michael Hoffstetter with Max Emanuel Cencic as the countertenor soloist. It was released by EMI Virgin Classics and in April 2008 was awarded the prize of l’Académie du Disque Lyrique 2008.

The 2008-2009 season of the L’OCG will be characterised through the arrival of the new musical director, 27 year old Patrick Lange, who has taken over the role from Michael Hofstetter. 

Girolamo Bottiglieri (Italy), violin I
Raya Raytcheva (Bulgaria), violin II
Caroline Haas (Switzerland), viola
François Grin (Switzerland), cello

Since winning the first prize at the 56th Geneva International Music Competition in 2001, the Terpsycordes String Quartet has established itself as one of the most remarkable musical ensembles of its generation. Unanimously acclaimed by the press and the public, it performs regularly on most of the finest international musical stages. Its two CDs to date ( Schumann, op. 41 and Haydn, op. 33, Claves Records) demonstrate a sensitive rendering blending finesse and fanciful touches, backed by an in-depth study of the texts and of the style inherent to each era. Founded in 1997, the quartet trained with Gábor Takács-Nagy at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Genève, where it graduated with a Premier Prix de virtuosité in 2001 and has subsequently pursued its training with the Amadeus, Budapest, Hagen, Italiano, Lasalle, Mosaïques, Smetana and Via Nova quartets. Playing two sets of instruments (classical and modern ) that enable them to cover a repertoire spanning almost three centuries, the Terpsycordes musicians, who are determined to keep their finger on the pulse of their times, regularly contribute to the creation of contemporary works through concerts as well as radio and CD recordings.